IRVING - After drafting nine players and possibly signing over 20 undrafted rookie free agents this weekend, the Dallas Cowboys say they are a better team than they were a year ago.

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones acknowledged Saturday night that they weren't built to overcome the rash of injuries to their defensive line last season.

By drafting three defensive linemen this weekend to go along with their free agency signings, Jones likes the depth defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli will work with up front.

"We are better just simply because we are ready for it this year, and we have numbers that we don't have to be bringing people in," Jones said. "For me, I feel better tonight than I did when we quit playing last year. That isn't just optimism for me. I, factually, can look down here and say we're a better team than we were this time last year as reality would have it."

Chief operating officer Stephen Jones agrees with his father. But not only with getting better, but reducing the average age on the roster.

"No question. We're younger. We're better," Stephen said Saturday night. "We'll have over 30 players between our draft picks and our free agents - that's a third of our football team - that are going to be either drafted or signed over the last three days.

"We'll end up cutting quite a few players, when we're through signing everybody, guys that as we've been going through the last week or so that we feel like, 'Hey, we need to get younger and we need to give some young guys a chance to show.'

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